Intended Parents

Intended parents come from around the world; they may be singles or couples, same sex or heterosexual. Our clients benefit from our wealth of experience and knowledge.

Melissa and her husband are parents of twin boys and a daughter delivered via a gestational carrier. A gestational carrier is a woman who carries a child conceived through the process of in-vitro fertilization. In this way, the child is not biologically related to the carrier. This differs from a traditional surrogacy arrangement where the surrogate supplies the egg and is the biological mother of the child she delivers. Reproductive Possibilities, LLC locates gestational carriers and manages gestational carrier arrangements exclusively.

What Intended Parents can expect from our Surrogate Mother Agency

Reproductive Possibilities' goal is to match you with a gestational carrier who closely fits your criteria for the journey ahead.

The gestational carrier will not be genetically related to the child(ren) she is carrying. Eggs used will be fertilized outside of the woman's body and the resulting embryos placed in the gestational carrier. This medical procedure will take place at an IVF facility selected by the intended parents. If a pregnancy results, the carrier and intended parents will work together with our office to ensure a happy and healthy delivery.

What to expect when working with our Surrogate Agency

The first step for intended parents is to contact our agency for more information. Call us at 201-505-0078 or for more options go to the Contact Us page. Intended parents are encouraged to schedule a consultation with Melissa Brisman to discuss the specific details of their situation and develop a plan to build their family. As our clients come from around the world, consultations can be conducted over the telephone or in person at our office. When you come to our office, you will also have the opportunity to sit down with one of our Intended Parent Coordinators to discuss the Surrogate mother process step by step. It is our goal to give intended parents a full picture of how their journey to parenthood will proceed.

Once you sign a Service Agreement with our agency we will work with you to develop your individual criteria for your gestational carrier. With the preferences of the intended parents in mind, our Intended Parent Coordinators get to work searching our database for a match.

Finding a Surrogate Mother

Reproductive Possibilities, LLC maintains a database of women available to be surrogate mothers for intended parents. Each of our carriers must complete an extensive application and interview process before being entered into our database. Through this process, only surrogates that we are comfortable recommending to our clients make their way into our program.

After all screening processes are complete, including medical and psychological, we then coordinate the review of the surrogates insurance and the execution of a surrogate mother contract.

When the surrogate mother contract is signed, Intended Parents are required to deposit their surrogate’s fee into an escrow account. Intended Parents are welcome to use an escrow manager of their choice or retain the services of Surrogate Fund Management, LLC, a fully insured escrow management company wholly owned and operated by Melissa Brisman.

Our office stays by your side as you approach each embryo transfer, throughout your pregnancy and during the legal process required to name you as legal parents of your child(ren). When your journey is over, we celebrate the birth of your child(ren) with you and remind you to send us pictures.

We walk side by side with hundreds of intended parents every year on this exciting journey.

Estimated Cost of Surrogacy

I. Surrogate Mother Agency Fees

A. Surrogate Mother Agency Fees

$14,800 - $25,900

II. Reproductive Law Attorney's Fees

A. Reproductive Law Attorney's Fees

$2,500 - $6,000

B. Drafting of Gestational Carrier Contract

$2,500 - $5,200

C. Medical Insurance Review

$500 - $1,000

D. Combined discount from Melissa B. Brisman, Esq., LLC

$3,750(Full) & $5,200(Premium)

E. Court Order for Birth Certificate

$2,500 - $5,000

III. Escrow Account Management

A. Escrow Management fees

$1,200 - $1,750

B. Surrogate Fund Management fee

$1,400

IV. Surrogate Mother Reimbursements

A. Single fetus

$25,000 *

B. Multiple birth

$28,000+ *

*Paid monthly over the course of a confirmed pregnancy

**Experienced carriers will ask for significantly more in compensation

*Important Note: Medical Expenses incurred prior to the carrier's discharge from the infertility clinic will not be covered by the carrier's insurance. This will be an out of pocket cost for the Intended Parent(s). Please check with your fertility clinic for an estimate on these fees as they vary by clinic.

VII. Total Expenses for a successful IVF pregnancy

Total Expenses for a successful IVF pregnancy(excluding medical costs for the IVF procedure and pregnancy)

$70,000 - $90,000**

**COSTS FOR THE MEDICAL PROCEDURE ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE ESTIMATED EXPENSES. MANY COUPLES' INSURANCE POLICIES WILL COVER THESE EXPENSES. AS A RESULT, THESE COSTS ARE HIGHLY VARIABLE. THE MEDICAL FACILITY AND REPRODUCTIVE POSSIBILITIES, LLC CAN HELP OBTAIN MORE DETAILED INFORMATION UPON REQUEST.

THIS REPRESENTS AN ESTIMATE OF THE ACTUAL COSTS INCURRED. IN SOME CIRCUMSTANCES, COSTS MAY BE LESS THAN THOSE ESTIMATED. IN SOME CASES, COSTS MAY BE GREATER. COUPLES SHOULD USE THIS SHEET AS A GUIDE. DUE TO THE UNUSUAL NATURE OF THESE TYPES OF ARRANGEMENTS, THIS SHEET SHOULD IN NO WAY BE INTERPRETED AS A GUARANTEE OF COSTS INCURRED.

PLEASE NOTE REPRODUCTIVE POSSIBILITIES FEES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE CONSULT THE OFFICE TO ENSURE THAT THE FEE SCHEDULE YOU HAVE IS UP-TO-DATE.

Surrogate Mother Contracts

A Surrogate Mother Contract is an agreement between the intended parent(s) and a surrogate mother and her partner/spouse, if any. These contracts can be compensated or uncompensated and are intended to detail the parties' rights, obligations, intentions and expectations in connection with their arrangement. The contract addresses subjects such as parental rights, custody issues, location of delivery, future contact between the parties, and insurance (both health and life). In addition, the contract covers issues such as control over medical decisions during the pregnancy, payment of medical bills, liability for medical complications, availability of medical history and personal medical information on the gestational carrier, and intended parents' presence during doctor's visits and at the delivery. Financial considerations such as the surrogate mother's compensation and expenses, including lost wages, legal fees, child care and maternity clothes are also addressed in the contract.

The Surrogate Mother Contract is usually negotiated once the intended parents and the surrogate mother and the surrogate mother's partner/spouse, if any, undergo medical testing and are fully screened.

Pre & Post Birth Orders

Intended parents who use the services of a gestational carrier to carry their child must obtain a court order determining legal parentage for the child. The order also directs the hospital where the child is born and/or the appropriate state department of vital records to place the intended parents' names on the birth certificate of the child delivered by the gestational carrier.

If intended parents do not obtain an order, in most cases, one or both intended parents will be required to adopt their child. Also, in the absence of an order, the gestational carrier's name may be placed on the birth certificate as a parent of the child when the child is born.

Process of Surrogacy

The process of obtaining a birth order should begin once a gestational carrier has completed the first trimester of the pregnancy. This is to ensure that there is enough time to obtain a birth order prior to the child's birth. Our office recommends Melissa B. Brisman, Esq., LLC as the firm has helped facilitate birth orders in numerous states including, but not limited to, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Maine.

Testimonials from Intended Parents who worked with our Surrogate Agency

Dear Prospective Parents,

We are writing this letter on behalf of Melissa Brisman. As a same sex couple we thought that the road to parenthood would be a bumpy one. We started our journey by talking to couples about different options, which included adoption and surrogacy. Our decision was that surrogacy would be the best route for us. We quickly started researching large agencies and was shocked by the amount of money it was estimated to cost. At a dinner party we were introduced to a husband and wife who were going through the same process. As we were sharing information we were advised to the benefits of using a private attorney for the surrogate process. Before this conversation the thought of a private attorney was never considered. We were given Melissa's phone number and our lives have never been the same.

With great excitement and anticipation we phoned Melissa Brisman for a consultation. Being a same sex couple we were nervous and didn't know how we would be received. Much to our delight the office staff was fantastic. They were very friendly and well informed; we made an appointment with Melissa the following week. The consultation with Melissa gave us great hope and put us at ease regarding the journey we were about to embark on.

We found her extremely understanding, considerate and caring of our situation. She explained to us in detail what we needed to do to complete the whole process. We were incredibly impressed with her patience and ability to answer any question we may have had. We found by using Melissa Brisman the cost was approximately half of what a conventional agency would have charged.

With the help of Melissa Brisman we quickly found a gestational carrier and all other persons involved in the process. We again were highly impressed with all of her recommendations. On the second attempt the gestational carrier became pregnant with twins. At this point Melissa had advised us that we should petition the court to have the surrogate removed from the birth certificates. Again we found everyone in Melissa's office incredibly helpful and diligent in this matter. To everyone's delight Melissa triumphed in a landmark ruling in the county were our children were born. The birth mother was omitted from the birth certificate and her office is proceeding with a second parent adoption.

We were so pleased with this experience that we have started the process again. With the help of Melissa and her staff, as well as our surrogate we are expanding our family.

Sincerely yours,

Steven, David, Claire & Lucy

Dear Prospective Parents,

I would like to share with you my personal experience with Melissa Brisman. My husband and I first contacted her after enduring several miscarriages and learning that our infertility problems would not allow me to carry a baby. We did extensive research on how to go about finding a gestational carrier and what the process would entail.

Spending endless hours reading everything I could get my hands on and surfing the Internet until all hours of the night, Melissa's name was the one thing that kept showing up. I then, called the director of a Resolve chapter and questioned her on Melissa. I initially hesitated to call her, because much of what I read geared me towards believing I had to go through an agency to find a carrier. After speaking with the director, however, my mind was made up and I called Melissa for a consultation. Within a week we had our consult, and a month later we were matched with our carrier.

The one thing I remember Melissa saying was not to jump at the first carrier profile just because we were anxious and ready to get the process started. She made it very clear that although there may be many qualified candidates, we may not "click" with all of them. She assured us that if the first few weren't "perfect" matches, the next one would be. Inevitably, we screened several profiles before being matched with our amazingly wonderful carrier. Melissa made the process from the initial consultation, to the birth of our son, Ethan, virtually problem free. Any hurdle that arose, she took care of immediately and explained everything so that we understood what was happening then and what would happen next.

Four months after Ethan's birth, we began the process all over again, with the same carrier. We now have two beautiful children born through the miracle of using a gestational carrier. Our experience with Melissa has been nothing but positive. We owe her the world.

Sincerely,

Lauren and Kurt

Each Journey to Parenthood is Unique!

Learn about Melissa Brisman's family building experiences, featured in The Pennsylvania Gazette.

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About

A Surrogate Agency with a Personal Touch

Reproductive Possibilities offers a personal touch that can only come from someone who has gone through the process themselves. Melissa Brisman personally experienced the process of locating a surrogate and fertility clinic, as well as navigating the legal challenges and arrangements necessary to help her build a family of her own. She not only found her way through these challenges, but continues to pave the way for others as well. This experience and the joy of finally holding her children in her arms, inspired her to create an agency focused on guiding Intended Parents and Surrogates. Contact Us today to start your journey.